Monday, November 29, 2010

Monsters is a new low-budget British sci fi film directed by Gareth Edwards. It cost approximately £500,000 to make, is released this week, and has been getting some good reviews (66% positive on Rotten Tomatoes).

They've very cleverly used Foursquare as part of the promotion, but not in a conventional way.

Update - they're trying to organise Foursquare swarms (i.e. more than 50 checkins at once) at a number of venues on launch day, 3rd December. If a swarm happens, all participants get a discounted ticket:

"On the 3rd December (release day) from 6pm, fans who are eagerly awaiting the release of Monsters are encouraged to gather in 5 Vue Entertainment cinemas and 5 Cineworld venues around the UK. Using the Foursquare application on their smart phones, fans will need to unlock the coveted Swarm Badge, which can only be unlocked when 50+ Foursquare users check in to a venue simultaneously.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Spotted in the wild by colleagues - Google is now putting banner ads on some image searches.

For example 'John Wayne'

Or 'London'

The banners don't show up on the main search page, just on the Images page. I guess the reasoning is that people looking for images aren't going to be freaked out by banner ads.

There seems to be no targeting on general terms like these - 'Flightworx' has no relevance to 'John Wayne', and Car hire in the Canary Islands clearly has no relevance for a search on London - but for other, more commercial terms like 'Power Drill' you get shopping ads with a small picture, plus an ad promoting the Image ads service.

Friday, November 19, 2010

This is the winner of a competition to find a new 'Fun Theory' idea - to change human behaviour through fun.

The idea is to set up a speed camera, to take pictures of all cars passing a spot. Speeders get a fine, BUT at the same time some of this fine goes towards rewarding some of the people who obeyed the law, on a lottery principle.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Google Goggles is a fun picture search application, now available on the iPhone as well as on Android phones.

It's not perfect, but it's fun to use.

To boost trial Google have announced this experiment in the US - take pictures of any advertising assets of Buick, Delta Airlines, Diageo, Disney & T-Mobile, and you will be directed to mobile content, in the same way as if you'd scanned a QR code.

It comes as people start to be aware of the rising level of mobile internet use - Morgan Stanley's recent presentation on this subject is here.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

KLM has set up a Foursquare account, and is asking people to add them as friends. Travellers who do, and then check into KLM locations like airport lounges are then studied (for example their recent tweets) and some are rewarded with unusual and thoughtful gifts based on what KLM can work out about them.

"The KLM team has surprised travellers with champage, notebooks, a watch, and traditional Dutch foods. One passenger, Willem van Hommel, was going to miss one of his soccer team’s most important matches of the year due to his trip to New York. KLM surprised him with a Lonely Planet guide to New York with all the best soccer bars in the city marked out for him. Another traveller, Tobias Hootsen, was surprised with a package to remind him of home during his long stay abroad."

You can see how this sort of thing could get really intrusive, but I think in this case KLM has done it very well. It's a fun, low budget initiative that will really get talked about by the people involved, and (perhaps most importantly) didn't actually require any involvement from Foursquare themselves.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Download the Evoque app from a mobile app store, then follow the instructions to be part of a global mapping stunt. OK Go will be getting people to create their logo in LA on the 17th of November - watch the video for full details.

Loyalty Deal - unlocked when people check in at a venue or chain between 2 and 20 times

Friend Deal - When you tag multiple friends with you when your check in

Charity Deal - Promote a cause

Friends' deals will appear in the news feed, spreading the news about the offer, and marketing the venue. The whole process is user-initiated; I'd expect this to take off very quickly (although I think it's only available in the US for the time being.) Here's the guide to how to use it.

So where does this leave Foursquare etc? I think they'll be fine for the time being, as users seem to use those services (or at least my friends do) more frequently and in a different way. In the long term though, who knows.

The other impact is to further drive the take-up of smartphones. When people see the benefits that their friends get from having a smartphone in terms of real savings, more people will see why they need to have one.

"The Gap will give out a free pair of blue jeans to the first 10,000 to check in on a certain dayThe Palms Hotel, in Las Vegas, will offer a room upgrade or a free weekend nightJC Penney will offer $10 off any $50 purchaseMcDonald’s will give $1 per customer to the Ronald McDonald House Charities."